Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Leofwine_draca It's testament to SHALAKO's efficiency that it ably passes for a Hollywood western despite being a British/West German production; the mountainous Spanish scenery accounts for much of the authenticity here and the story that follows is surprisingly decent, although perhaps not one of the absolute classics of the era. I'm just surprised that the team made a likable western despite the problems that could have arisen with it.One of these is Sean Connery, perhaps playing one of the most unlikely cowboys ever; he acquits himself well and gives a taciturn performance which suits the film nicely. Brigitte Bardot doesn't have much to do other than stand around and look ravishing, which of course she does with ease. The excellent supporting cast includes the likes of Jack Hawkins, Eric Sykes (!), Honor Blackman, Peter van Eyck, Stephen Boyd, and, in an odd but effective bit of casting, Woody Strode as a Native American leader.The spare narrative doesn't have a great deal of plot structure but that fits well with the survivalist tone. The action scenes are very effective, particularly a mini siege that brings to mind ZULU. The film was based on a book by popular western writer Louis L'Amour, and was directed by old-time Hollywood pro Edward Dmytryk.

Neil Welch What an oddity this is.If you put to one side the Louis L'Amour source novel, and Woody Strode in the supporting cast, this traditional western has no US input at all. Even the spaghetti westerns usually had a Yank at the top of the cast list.This European western has quite a high profile cast list - Sean Connery (Scots), Brigitte Bardot (French), Stephen Boyd (Irish), Peter van Eyck (German), Jack Hawkins and Eric Sykes (English) - none of whom would be obvious choices for a western. The Spanish locations are, I suppose, redolent of some American desert areas, but still aren't really the sort of places which evoke the US places where one might expect a European hunting party to visit.This sense of geographical dislocation gives the movie a weird feel. When you factor in the fact that this is quite a sadistic picture, with a level of violence not commonly seen in westerns in 1968, you get a movie which doesn't easily bear comparison with anything else. It's like wandering through an art gallery looking at portraits by old masters and suddenly seeing a landscape painted by Steven Spielberg - yes, it's a painting, and yes, Spielberg is undoubtedly a man of great artistic vision and ability, but this particular item simply doesn't fit.Is it any good? It's OK, and I think it would be better if you could shake off the air of weirdness which is there whe whole time you're watching it.

Marlburian By now, virtually everything that can be said about the film has been said. I didn't think it was that bad, and the (Spanish) scenery was great. The cast had a novelty value: Connery was good as the scout, and Boyd and Blackman also acquitted themselves well. This appears to have been Hawkins' second film after his operation to remove throat cancer, and he doesn't have much to do.One or two posters seemed surprised about an European hunting party living it up in the Wild West, but obviously they don't know their Buffalo Bill (who was a popular guide for such groups), and at its beginning the film listed various European dignitaries who had gone on such trips.Bardot was miscast throughout - years ago, when watching it on TV with my father, he exclaimed "hell!" when she made her first incongruous appearance, dressed up to the nines and uncomfortably aiming a rifle at a wild cat.The Indian attack on the white men's camp was well presented.Partial spoiler: The ending was weak, and, not for the first time in a film, I wonder how the inevitable pairing off would have worked out.

xredgarnetx Based on a Louis L'Amour story, SHALAKo is a standard Western about an ex-Army colonel (a miscast Sean Connery in a really silly cowboy hat) trying to keep a party of Europeans alive after they have invaded Indian territory. A Spanish-made film, the only American in the cast is Stephen Boyd as the party's villainous guide, and he's OK. Well, and Woody Strode is the chief bad Indian! Otherwise, you have a broad spectrum of accents and acting to deal with here. Heavily eyelined Frenchie Brigitte Bardot is a countess from who knows where and German actor Peter Van Eyck plays a stiff-backed baron. Brits Jack Hawkins and Honor Blackman are a couple of English nobility. And so on. Even the butler is foreign. This is one of those glossy European flicks, of which there were quite a few made back in the 1960s and 1970s, and most of which never quite clicked here. In the end, the story comes to nothing. And the endless shots of Spanish desert wear thin after awhile. You may safely skip this one.